ouch.

Activist jurist!!

johnsoninca: Using electrical shocks to get a DNA sample, huh? Sounds kind of kinky...


worked for Stephen Hawking...

If cops get to keep using these electric torture devices, we're going to need to set up some sort of civilian review boards for when they are used. When they came out the cops insisted they needed them to drop nuts high on drugs without shooting them, but they keep being used to punish people who don't do as the police say. Think about it, if they could pull his DNA off of a soda can and a glove left at crime scenes, did they really need to shock the man to get some off of him?

angelslogic: johnsoninca: Using electrical shocks to get a DNA sample, huh? Sounds kind of kinky...


worked for Stephen Hawking...

oh oh oh oh OHHHH SNAP!

The judge should be tased right in his nutsack.

Hmmm, applying pain to obtain compliance from a person in custody in America. who says there is no slippery slope?

SpeshilEdjukashin

If cops get to keep using these electric torture devices, we're going to need to set up some sort of civilian review boards for when they are used.

So, you're saying, next time they taser someone to get a DNA sample, you wanna be there to watch?

/pervert

Just lovely.

The cops should have simply locked the man up on contempt charges and put him in jail until he complied with the court order or his attorney got the warrant voided. The public interest would be served just as well that way.

This is un-American and fascist. Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza ought to be ashamed of herself. She is a disgrace to her profession.

/subby

Of course the judge ruled in favor of the police.
Why would a gang boss rule against the thugs that provide muscle in his extortion racket?

Can we replace waterboarding with tasers? Please?

Wow. At first, I figured that the use of the taser was just simply because he was being combative and they needed to subdue him in order to take the DNA, maybe through a blood sample or something.

Then I read the article. They tased him not to get him to calm down, but simply because they knew how painful it would be, in the hopes that he'd willingly give up his DNA because he was afraid of being shocked a second time.

Seriously, inflicting physical pain upon a non-combative person as a method of persuasion? Absolutely unacceptable.

Add that to the fact that they ALREADY had his DNA and ruined it by their own (or their lab's) incompetence, and I see this guy being released very, very quickly.

Next up: Court order to taser someone until they confess.

Correction, HER extortion racket.

After being tasered...

chaoswolf: The judge should be tased right in his nutsack.

Her nutsack, O Mighty Article Reader

No one supprects the spanish inquisition

Portscanner: Next up: Court order to taser someone until they confess.


Pretty close to what we have here. DNA is evidence that can be used against this guy. They shocked him until he gave up evidence to be used against himself, something he wouldn't have done had it not been for the taser.

No one suspects* the Spanish inquisition

Ryan2065: Why do you think we compare the pros and cons of tasers to physical force and not guns? Police have been trained to use them instead of physical force, not instead of their guns.

Then their training is the problem. Tasers are supposed to be a non-lethal alternative to situations where deadly force would have previously been used. The fact that they're just substituting electrocution for any sort of physical interaction is insane.

so we are starting to torture our own criminals

/yay

Let's not forget the guy who was tasered so police could get a urine sample.

Link (new window)

/No court order necessary

SaintAnky: The cops should have simply locked the man up on contempt charges and put him in jail until he complied with the court order or his attorney got the warrant voided. The public interest would be served just as well that way.


FTA: The officer wrote that he then applied the stun gun to Smith's left shoulder, a "drive stun" that is regarded as less painful than shooting electric prongs into a person, which is the usual Taser approach. Smith then consented to the sample, and he was arrested on a contempt of court charge.

Sounds like they got to do both.

/I hope the judge trips over a live power line on the way home from court

An appeals court should be teeing up to hear this one. Everyone, including this scum, has a right to a hearing in this kind of situation.

Whats wrong with this guy? Everybody knows tasers are for torturing citizens

I guess the part of the fifth amendment that says "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" only applies to some of us.

I Said: Please let this get overturned.

Also, FTA: the judge did find a Wyoming case where a court ruled it was legal to use a Taser to force a suspect to open his hand for a search.

WTF? It's a taser, it's supposed to be used in lieu of a GUN, not "any time you want a suspect to do something". And I don't see how the WY example relates to this one.

THIS.

So now that we're apparently on board with torturing suspected terrorists, we can continue down the slippery slope to torturing just anybody for anything. Great! God Bless America! Jesus said torture the little children!

Purplebuzz: Hmmm, applying pain to obtain compliance from a person in custody in America. who says there is no slippery slope?

Ahhh, I see you went there already. Sorry for my repetition.

Random Guy: I guess the part of the fifth amendment that says "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" only applies to some of us.

Good catch!

Random Guy: I guess the part of the fifth amendment that says "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" only applies to some of us.

I think the courts can compel someone to give up DNA and other specific things with a court order. I don't think the police should be able to enforce a court order by using a taser which is tantamount to beating a suspect into compliance.

Random Guy: I guess the part of the fifth amendment that says "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" only applies to some of us.

I don't have a major issue with being compelled to give a DNA sample when proper procedure is followed. It's more like a search to me. So long as you have the proper warrant, go for it.

This Taser bit is completely over the top though. Go through the proper channels, keep him locked up for being in contempt of court until he gives the sample or until he dies of old age for all I care, but this is ridiculous.

Websters: "tor·ture
Pronunciation:
\ˈtȯr-chər\
Function:
noun
2: the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure"

I hear a door being opened, and I'm terrified of what's behind it.

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
-Justice William O. Douglas

/my favorite quote
//frighteningly applicable

devildog123: So, in this case, what was the suspect doing to rate a tazering?

FTFA: Smith was handcuffed and sitting on the floor of Niagara Falls Police Headquarters when he was zapped with the 50,000- volt electronic stun gun

Sounds pretty violent to me. Good thing they zapped him or they could have been in danger!

Because we live in a society where freedom is just a catch phrase, you really have no rights, it's a myth to keep retards from reveling.

When will they start tasering folks who refuse to appear before the US Congress under legal order? Now I'm all for that.

Lizardking: chaoswolf: The judge should be tased right in his nutsack.

Her nutsack, O Mighty Article Reader

/hangs head in shame.

It's true. I did not RTFA.

Doubleodoug: I think the courts can compel someone to give up DNA and other specific things with a court order. I don't think the police should be able to enforce a court order by using a taser which is tantamount to beating a suspect into compliance.

What the cops did was tantamount to forcing a confession by way of torture which is exactly what the fifth amendment was supposed to protect against. His not wanting to give a sample is not carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want to get it.